Alex Pereira Reminisces About The Time He Made Israel Adesanya Cry

Alex Pereira has been reminiscing about the time he knocked out Israel Adesanya and made him cry.

Pereira twice beat Adesanya under the Glory kickboxing banner. ‘Po Atan’ first picked up a win over ‘Stylebender’ by decision in 2016. A year later the pair rematched and this time Pereira’s win was much more decisive as he knocked Adesanya out cold.

During a recent interview, Pereira revealed that Adesanya was “arrogant” and the only time the UFC middleweight champion dropped his bravado was in the immediate aftermath of their second fight.

“I don’t know if with his friends, right, with the people close to him, he’s that arrogant guy, that annoying guy, because every time I met the guy, it was all that arrogance, that ego, he was always like that,” Pereira told Marcelo Alonso.

“Since our first fight in China, he was a guy who pissed me off a lot, from the weigh-in to the fight. Even losing, when there was the rematch here in Brazil he made a post that I don’t really remember, but it was something like ‘I’ll have to beat Pereira in his backyard and then run out of the favela’. It was something like that, right?

“I only saw him at the weigh-in and the fight,” Pereira added. “After the fight I saw him crying outside in Ibirapuera. Sitting on a low wall with his trainer – that’s it.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)

Alex Pereira & Israel Adesanya Could Complete Their Trilogy In The UFC

Since then, Adesanya has gone on to become one of the biggest stars in MMA. The New Zealander is the current 185lb king and has lost just once during his 22-fight MMA career.

Pereira joined the UFC in 2021 and is hoping to be fast-tracked to a title shot after scoring a flying knee KO win his promotional debut.

The 34-year-old is expected to face Bruno Silva on March 12.

Do you think we’ll ever see Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya 3?